Sports Talk

March 18^th, 2022; Many in the city of Cleveland rejoice as they win the “Deshaun Watson sweepstakes” signing a quarterback touted as “The Michael Jordan of football” by Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney. Cleveland has long been looking for their “guy” at quarterback and though Baker Mayfield led the team to their first playoff victory since the team returned to Cleveland, he’s performed poorly this season, while playing through injuries, and has garnered some of the blame for the departure of star receiver Odell Beckham Jr. after his father posted a video highlighting Mayfield’s struggles. Watson’s arrival with the Browns was not without considerable baggage and controversy having forced his exit from Houston in an exhaustive process while issues off the field revolving around interactions with numerous women threatened his availability for the next season. Despite these factors the Browns executed a trade championed by Chief Strategy Officer and “Moneyball” guru Paul DePodesta in which Cleveland would exchange three first-round picks a third-round pick and two fourth-round picks over the following three years. Watson and his camp had final say in the trading process owing to a no-trade clause in his prior contract extension with Houston, so in order to entice him to sign the Browns offered an unprecedented deal worth $230 million guaranteed over the following 5 years. Due to Watson’s off the field issues, however, it was anticipated that he would be suspended for much of the 2022-23 season, forfeiting his salary, so in order to circumvent the NFL’s ruling the contract was structured in such a way that Watson would only make $1 million in his first season with the team. From a purely football point of view this seemed to be a step by the Browns’ ownership to better a team who has struggled since their reinstatement to the league, but time would show this was a grave mistake.

As anticipated, Watson was suspended for the first 10 games of the 2022-23 NFL Season and since then has performed poorly with a passer rating of 80.7 (Out of 158.3) in his time with the team leading them to a 9-10 record across his starts. Watson has struggled to operate in Stefanski’s offense with issues finding open receivers and escaping the confines of a pocket whose pass protection win rank far outranks their sack ranking (15^th vs. 32^nd) demonstrating that a number of Watson’s sacks are due to his attempts to extend plays or move outside of the pocket. Watson’s struggles have only been further highlighted by the performances of his backups who have not faced similar issues in execution as Joe Flacco led the Browns to a playoff appearance in 2023 and Jameis Winston led the Browns to an upset win over the Baltimore Ravens in his first start in 2024.

In any other situation the answer would be obvious, move on from Watson and retain the quarterbacks which have led your team to success. These players have proven their worth, and the NFL is a meritocracy, right? In most cases yes, the NFL is the ultimate meritocracy, except when you’ve guaranteed $230 million to a player, and cutting said player would result in a cap hit of $172 million over the next three years (notably $72 million in 2025 and 2026). A dead cap of this magnitude would be the largest of all time by a factor of two. With the talent on the Browns roster at this point, removing this money from the cap would necessitate mass contract negotiation or more likely a team rebuild due to the number of players they would need to part with. So now the Browns are stuck in a sort of “Sports Purgatory” wherein they cannot afford to part with Watson, but also risk wasting the prime of many of their stars and a quickly closing window in which the team could make its mark.

Cleveland has been no stranger to mismanagement, though they started their existence with only one losing season between 1946-1973, the team has claimed 31 losing seasons since then even while losing 3 seasons when Art Modell relocated everything except the jerseys and helmets to Baltimore to become the Ravens. Management of the Browns franchise when it returned to the league in 1999 seemed unaware of the fact that this was in essence an expansion team and attempted to run the organization as if it was the team which now called Baltimore its home. By the time Jimmy Haslam acquired the team in 2012 the team had one playoff appearance and a litany of quarterbacks. No stranger to sticking his finger in the pot of the Browns as evidenced by the drafting of Johnny Manziel in 2014 it was clear that the Watson signing was a gamble that ownership was interested in. Regardless of who is to blame for the Watson trade, no parties seem eager to claim responsibility. However, with the ownership group currently engaged in litigation with the city in order to move the team away from its current home on the banks of Lake Erie and to a place outside of city limits in the suburb of Brook Park, they are unlikely to earn any additional love from fans of the team.

Cleveland is a rust belt city with a rich history of football, where the motivation and morale of the people often rides with performance of their football teams. When your job offers you a sense of morose consistency which can dull the spirit, sports can help to bring a sense of hope and joy to life. The Browns fanbase, commonly referred to as the “Dawg Pound” after the section dedicated to the teams superfans, is largely made up of residents of this blue-collar town who have stuck by this team and found identity in being loyal to an organization which has failed to produce a reasonable product on the field until recently. Regardless of your views on the team or fanbase they’ve been sentenced to this virtual sporting purgatory by their own ownership and front office. With issues on the field and with the stadium similarities could even be drawn to the team’s situation prior to their departure for Baltimore. So, what are the Browns to do, do they bench Watson and rely on cheap backups to execute their offense, do they stick with the subpar performance of their starter after his second season ending injury in as many seasons, or do they cut him and face the issues of a greatly hindered cap. In times like these the words of former Steelers and current Chiefs wide receiver ring true “The Browns is the Browns” and they seem to continue create situations which make their job more difficult. Though as Browns fans remember the team won their first playoff game since rejoining the league against the Steelers shortly after that quote was added, and if Cleveland’s fans have shown anything, despite the misery and despite the long odds, there is always hope and support behind the Browns.